Hi everyone,
I have two offers, one in Oliver Wyman and one in Roland Berger in Paris.
I can't figure how to decide. My gut tells me to go to Oliver Wyman (better fit, close to financial services) but I want to be sure I make the right decision. What do you think?
Oliver Wyman vs Roland Berger
Hi there,
First of all, congratulations on the offers!
I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:
I would highly advise you to opt for the option that better aligns with your professional (and maybe even personal) mid- to long-term goals. In order to make an informed decision, I would advise you to do the following:
- Weigh the different criteria that are meaningful to you independently of the current options (e.g., prestige, culture, international exposure, compensation, location). After that, score the two options based on your criteria and their weighting, resulting in two scores. This way, you have covered the left-brain perspective.
- Critically assess your initial reaction to the outcome of the scores. For instance, if you feel the urge to tweak the numbers, this is a solid indicator that you do not want this decision to become reality. This way, you have covered the right-brain perspective.
- By doing so, you will be able to integrate both parts of the brain into the decision-making, guaranteeing a higher chance that you will still be happy with it years later.
If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to address your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.
Best,
Hagen
Hi there!
First of all, congratulations! This is a problem everyone here would like to have :)
As a true consultant, you must analyze the problem at hands using some structure, I think your short vs long term goals could be a way to do it:
1) Short-term goals;
- Financial opportunity: assuming you're going to enter at an entry-level the money will be similar, however, in my own experience, OW pays more.
- Work/Life Balance: On OW you tend to work on the client site from Monday through Thursday, with Fridays being spent in the office.
- Learning curve: pretty similar
- Traveling: OW is known for more traveling
2) Long-term goals.
- Moving inside the firm: path to partner is much faster in OW
- Exit opportunities: It will depend on what expertise you took during your years there but we can assume on OW you're going to focus more on the financial sector while on RB you're going to focus more on public sector
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Obviously, the above analysis could be much more detailed but the overall key here is, on one hand, your objective ideas (what sector would you like to learn more about) vs your gut feeling (what people did you got a better vibe from, how did you felt there and so one)
Whatever decision you take it's going to be a wonderful experience!